White Rabbit (George Benson album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[2]

White Rabbit is an album by George Benson. The title track is a cover of the famous Jefferson Airplane song by Grace Slick.This album was George Benson's second CTI Records project produced by Creed Taylor and was recorded nine months after Beyond the Blue Horizon.

Background

"White Rabbit" was described at Billboard

Benson told at the interview with Tamarkin that «The White Rabbit album was very exciting—it was an adventure. I really enjoyed doing that stuff», nevertheless Didier C. Deutsch cited at the booklet[7] of the CD digitally remastered, released in 1987 by Epic (EPC 450555 2) that Benson didn't like the 'tracking' process followed by CTI for this album, by means of a studio technique where the soloist, rhythm section, and background ingredients are recorded separately with overdubbing made afterwards.

Reception and critics

The review of this record at Jazz Musical Archives^[8] "White Rabbit" is rated as a four stars album considered to be "a slick but interesting album from a great guitarist" where "the sound of guitar dominates, both acoustic and electric". In the opinion of John Kelman^[9] in All About Jazz this album "was (and remains) an anomaly in Benson's prodigious catalogue» and to him "White Rabbit¨ is "a curiosity that transitions between his more mainstream efforts and the soulful jazz/pop star he was about to become".

"White Rabbit" was the first

The original 1971 LP cover was designed by Bob Ciano and features Pete Turner's picture of Pondo tribeswoman that he photographed in South Africa in 1970.^[11] George Benson recognized in his autobiography^[12] in 2014 that the fact that Creed Taylor didn't put his photo on the cover «was a factor that played to the success of this album».

Track listing

Personnel

• George Benson – guitar
• Spanish guitar
• Earl Klugh – acoustic guitar (5)
• Herbie Hancock – electric piano
• electric bass (1, 3), double bass
  (2, 4, 5)
• Billy Cobham – drums
• percussion, vocals
• Phil Kraus – vibraphone, percussion
• Gloria Agostini – harp

Woodwinds

• Phil Bodner – flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn
• Hubert Laws – flute, alto flute, piccolo, Flute solo (1)
• George Marge – flute, alto flute, clarinet, oboe, English horn
• Romeo Penque – English horn, oboe, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet
• Jane Taylor – bassoon

Brass

• Wayne Andre – trombone, baritone horn
• Jim Buffington – French horn
• John Frosk – trumpet, flugelhorn, trumpet solo (1, 5)
• Alan Rubin – trumpet, flugelhorn

Production

• Creed Taylor – producer
• Didier C. Deutsch – producer (CD 1987)
• Rudy Van Gelder – engineer
• Frank Decker – engineer (CD 1987)
• Don Sebesky – arrangements
• Pete Turner – cover photography
• Bob Ciano – album design

References